Consumer Reports National Research Center released information from a new study that found that the public is very concerned about patient safety,hospital-acquired infections and other forms of medical harm. According to the poll, 77 percent of respondents expressed high or moderate concern that they or someone in their family might be harmed by a hospital infection during treatment in the hospital. Seventy-one percent expressed high or moderate concern about being harmed by a medication error, and 65 percent were similarly concerned about surgical errors.
Virtually all consumers -- 96 percent -- said that hospitals should be required to report medical errors to state health departments, and 82 percent wanted each hospital's medical error record to be available to the public."It's not surprising to find such high levels of public concern about hospital-acquired infections and medical errors given that one in four patients is harmed during treatment," said Lisa McGiffert, director of Consumers Union's Safe Patient Project (www.safepatientproject.org). "Our poll found that the vast majority of the public wants to know more about their local hospital's record for keeping patients safe and supports efforts to require disclosure of this critical patient safety information."
A November 2010 New England Journal of Medicine study in North Carolina hospitals found that one in four patients were harmed by the care they received, ranging from hospital acquired infections to surgical errors to medication mistakes. Other medical errors include serious bed sores, patient falls in the hospital from inattentive care, and diagnostic mistakes. The study, which covered a six-year period, found no significant improvement in patient safety.
Since 2003, Consumers Union's Safe Patient Project has advocated for and helped pass hospital infection reporting laws throughout the nation. Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia now require hospital-specific public reports on certain infection rates. So far, twenty-three states have issued reports.
Starting this year, hospitals throughout the country must track and report when patients get central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) in intensive care units in order to get an annual two percent Medicare payment increase. Hospitals must report to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Healthcare Safety Network, the same system being used under most state reporting laws. A national report on each hospital's CLABSI infection rate is expected later in the year.
Twenty-six states require hospitals to report certain medical errors, but only 10 require public disclosure of hospital-specific information. The other 16 simply report statewide aggregated data to the public. Most of the states with reporting laws require hospitals to disclose errors that appear on the National Quality Forum's "never event" list, which includes 28 errors that can be prevented and should never happen. This list is updated periodically.
"Most Americans have no way of finding out whether their hospital does a good job or not at preventing medical errors," said McGiffert. "We need to hold hospitals accountable for the harm done to millions of patients each year through mandatory, public reporting of medical errors and of health care-acquired infections."
Consumers Union has developed a model medical error reporting law and has been working this year to encourage states to adopt it. The model law attempts to address underreporting of these errors by requiring hospitals to report all medical harm rather than those covered by the "never event" list, and by requiring states to validate the accuracy of the data. It also establishes penalties for hospitals that fail to report medical harm.
For more information about Consumers Union's patient safety campaign, see www.safepatientproject.org.
SOURCE Consumers Union
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